Harry Potter and the Age of Strength
by Luinromenwen
Summary: It's Harry's 5th year at Howgarts. He's a teenager now and he has to learn how to grow.
1. Growing Up

Chapter 1: Growing Up  
  
Harry Potter had been looking forward to going back to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry all summer, just as usual. Though this time, he was even more excited. He was growing up and he knew he was. He saw the changes in the morning when he had his growth spurt and he was inches taller than he had been before. He heard it in his voice as it got deeper and deeper each day. And he felt it under his skin when he longed to be with someone else. a girl.  
  
He knew the year ahead of him would be more thrilling. He felt tougher and was actually looking forward to taking on his constant rival, Draco Malfoy. He had to laugh to himself as he pictured the small little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. What Harry forgot to realize was the fact that Draco had probably grown too.  
  
The night before his trip to Hogwarts, Harry awoke in the middle night as he felt the lightning bolt scar on his forehead getting cold. It had the tendency to behave awkwardly after nightmares, but he didn't remember having one. "It feels like ice." He said to himself as he stroked the scar with his hand. Perhaps Headmaster Dumbledore would be able to tell him what was wrong with it tomorrow.  
  
Before he knew it, he was on the Hogwarts Express and chatting up a storm with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. "We'll be there in no time," said Hermione. "You better get dressed quickly." She reminded them as she often had to when it came to making them get their robes on in time. She left them alone and Harry and Ron finished getting dressed just as the train came to a stop. "We're here already, Harry. Can you believe it?"  
  
As Harry Potter arrives at Hogwarts for dinner in the Great Hall, he takes his seat next to Ron and Hermione. "Harry, there's something quite different about you this year." Hermione says with a smile. "You've grown." She was right. Harry thought as he himself began to feel more mature. It is after all his 5th year at Hogwarts and he's feeling more like a teenager than ever. Over the summer, while watching television with his cousin Dudley, Harry even began to notice just how beautiful girls were. He formed small crushes on famous blondes and he fell madly in love with some of the brunettes too.  
  
Harry also became more mature in a way that he felt he could now stand up to his evil Aunt and Uncle. He hadn't realized how good it felt to argue back until he received a telephone call from Hermione Granger and Uncle Vernon tried to take the phone away from him. "If you don't let me take this call, I'll turn Dudley into the pig he is!" Harry screamed before he could stop himself. Uncle Vernon knew that Harry wasn't allowed to do magic, but Uncle Vernon also knew that Harry wasn't afraid to break the rules. "Have your bloody telephone call, then!" He shouted and stomped out of the room. It was Harry's proudest victory over his Uncle and for the rest of the summer, he wasn't exactly shy about fighting back with his relatives.  
  
"I guess I have grown." Harry said with a smile. "But you and Ron have to, you know?" He said sincerely. He couldn't help notice how beautiful Hermione had become and how much stronger Ron was beginning to look.  
  
Ron finished stuffing a piece of chicken in his mouth and looked at Harry. "Well I don't think I've grown that much. I'm still not as old as Percy." He said awkwardly and continued eating his food.  
  
"Well of course you aren't Ron," said Hermione though a giggle. "But I do agree with Harry. We are all growing up... some of us faster than others." She sneered as Draco Malfoy came strolling down the aisle.  
  
"What happened to him?" Ron asked in shock while dropping a carrot. Draco was now taller than ever and his blonde-white hair was even longer than before.  
  
"Good to see you all." He said as he stopped by the Gryffindor table and placed one hand on Harry's shoulder and one on Ron's. "I look forward to beating you all in Quidditch." He raised his eyebrows at the three of them and then walked to the Slytherin table.  
  
"Is it me, or does he look even uglier than before?" Ron laughed and picked up his carrot again. "And what's wrong with his voice?" Ron began mocking him but was interrupted by Hermione.  
  
"He's not ugly, he's... different." Both Harry and Ron's mouths dropped as they looked back and forth between each other. "And his voice is perfectly normal for his age. You didn't expect it to stay the same now did you? He's just growing up too."  
  
Harry couldn't help but ask the question that had now formed in his and Ron's minds. "Do you. well, do you like Malfoy?"  
  
"Of course not, Harry! He may have grown more handsome, but there's no doubt in my mind that he's also grown meaner." Hermione responded and then stood up quickly while grabbing her books. "Now, I'm going to the common room to study. It's a new year and our classes will surely be more challenging." She turned around and walked away.  
  
Ron watched her leave and then began talking again. "She's gets stranger every year, Harry."  
  
Harry started to laugh but then stopped himself. "She does, Ron. She also gets prettier too." 


	2. Summer Secrets and Midnight Guilt

Chapter 2: Summer Secrets and Midnight Guilt  
  
As the evening moved on, Harry found himself in the Gryffindor common room, sitting at a small table and studying with Hermione. "I hope the classes aren't as challenging as you say they will be, Hermione. Studying isn't my cup of tea."  
  
Hermione looked up from her book distractingly and responded to Harry. "Well Quidditch isn't my cup of tea either, but I fully intend to learn how to play this year. If only you were so determined with your studying."  
  
Harry ignored the last part of Hermione's statement and felt himself get excited."Quidditch! You want to learn Quidditch, Hermione?"  
  
She looked at him again with a serious expression on her face. "Indeed."  
  
"Let me teach you."  
  
Hermione stared at him strangely for a moment. "Of course, Harry. You're the best player on the team. You're my friend too and there's no one I trust more to teach me." She finally gave him a smile before burying her head in her books again.  
  
"Harry, can I talk to you?" Ron asked from across the room.  
  
"Of course, Ron." Harry got up from the table, smiled at Hermione and walked over to where Ron was sitting. "What is it?"  
  
Ron took a deep breath and sat quiet for a moment before he finally spoke in a whisper. "I kissed her Harry."  
  
Harry wasn't sure what to think because he wasn't sure who Ron had been talking about. "Who, Ron?"  
  
Ron nodded his head in Hermione's direction as Harry's eyes grew in shock. "Over the summer she stayed with me for a few weeks to study while her parents went to America. We were alone in the kitchen talking about some chapter in a book and before I could stop myself... I kissed her."  
  
Harry let it all register in his head before responding. "Well, why are you telling me this, Ron? Are you two... a couple? Like Percy and Penelope?"  
  
Ron started laughing out loud. "No, Harry. It's just, I don't know. Things might start to seem weird between her and me and I thought you should know why."  
  
Harry nodded his head in understanding and found himself growing curious about the kiss. "How was it, Ron?"  
  
Ron seemed to chew on his answer for a moment. "It was bloody brilliant. She was my first kiss, and I was hers."  
  
Harry laughed a little and then stood up. "Well, I'm going to bed now. Don't let me come down here in the morning and catch you two snogging."  
  
"Shut up, Harry!"  
  
Harry turned around, still laughing and strolled up the stairs. As he did so, he felt a twinge of guilt form in his stomach. Ron had thought that he gave Hermione her first kiss, but Harry knew the truth. It had been Harry who kissed her at Hogwarts during the last night of their 4th year. It had been Harry who snuck into her room in the middle of the night and received a perfect kiss. It had also been Harry who neglected to tell his best friend Ron about that moment.  
  
Later that night, Harry started tossing and turning in his bed. He couldn't get to sleep so he sat up and put his glasses on. "It's only midnight," he said to himself as he stared at the clock. He swung his legs off the side of his bed and put his slippers on, then walked down the steps and up to Hermione's room. He walked in quietly and found her sleeping angelically on her bed. He regretted kissing her before he was able to appreciate it. He kissed her too young and it hadn't held as much importance to him as he would have liked. With a small sigh, he sat next to her on her soft bed and gently shook her awake.  
  
"Wh-what is it, Harry?" She asked while slowly sitting up."Is something wrong? Is your scar bothering you? It's not Quidditch is it? You don't want to practice now do you? Or is it studying? Are you finally as worried about your classes as you should be? Well then I think I should--" Before she could finish speaking, Harry placed his hand on her chin and pulled her in for a kiss. It was the second time she had kissed Harry Potter and yet somehow, this time seemed different. "What was that for, Harry?"  
  
"I- I just wanted to kiss you again. You've grown prettier this year and I couldn't resist."  
  
She smiled at him softly and placed her hand on his. "As long as there are no feelings behind that kiss, then I'm fine with it."  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and gave her a half smile. "I know, I know. You want to focus on your studying and the most we can be to each other is friends with benefits."  
  
Hermione nodded her head happily. "I'm glad you understand, Harry."  
  
He got a confused expression on his face and looked at her awkwardly. "Actually, I was wondering if you could explain what 'friends with benefits' are."  
  
"Oh Harry. It just means that we can kiss and do boyfriend/girlfriend-like things without actually being boyfriend and girlfriend. No feelings involved. Now do you really want that, Harry?"  
  
He turned his head to the side and thought about it for a minute. He was a growing teenage boy and was beginning to enjoy kissing this beautiful girl for no particular reason.  
  
"Harry?" He turned back to her, kissed her full on the lips again and got up.  
  
"I better leave before I wake the others." He whispered and nodded his head towards the other sleeping girls. "Have a good night, Hermione." He said as he closed the door behind him and left her in shock.  
  
"He needs to sort out his priorities." She said to herself; though she had no problem with kissing a handsome boy just for the fun of it. 


	3. Hermione's Revenge

Chapter 3: Hermione's Revenge  
  
Soon the second day at Hogwarts began and Harry and Hermione found themselves alone on the Quidditch field. "I thought you said a chaperone would be here, Harry." Hermione asked nervously. She hated breaking any rules.  
  
"Well Madam Hooch was going to come and watch us but she had to stay in detention with a Slytherin who hit Neville over the head with his broom."  
  
"Rotten luck that one has."  
  
"Well, don't worry. Nothing should go wrong with me here. After all, you do trust me, don't you?"  
  
Hermione nodded her head and smiled softy. "Ok, Harry." She handed her broom over to him. "I am an open book."  
  
Harry took her broom and placed it on the ground in front of her. "Now, it's very important to gain trust and control of your broom. So we have to start from the very beginning." As he said this, Hermione remembered her first experience with a broom at Hogwarts. It had taken her forever to get the thing in the air. Harry snapped her out of her flashback. "Hold your hand out like so and say "Up!"  
  
She took a deep breath and held out her hand. "Up!" The broom wiggled on the ground a bit and then lay motionless once again.  
  
"Put some more feeling into. Let it know you mean business." Hermione shouted "Up" again the broom didn't move at all. After a few minutes of trying she got angry and began to yell at it.  
  
"UP!"  
  
Harry waved his hands in front of her to calm her down. "Don't yell it like that!" But it was too late and the broom flew up off the ground and hit Hermione on the nose. The same thing happened to Ron his first time, but he was able to remain standing. Hermione, however, went down faster than Harry could say "Quidditch."  
  
"Hermione! Are you ok?" Harry asked worriedly as he kneeled down beside her on the ground. "I'm fine. I think I just bruised my nose a bit." She said and began rubbing it. "I can help with that." Harry said and kissed her on the nose. "I better get your lips too. They might be bruised as well." Hermione began giggling as Harry leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.  
  
"What is going on here?" Snape shouted as he came walking hurriedly on to the field. "Mr. Potter! You are not old enough to be practicing Quidditch alone and you definitely aren't old enough to be snogging on the ground with Ms. Granger! Get up! And come to my office, both of you!"  
  
Snape took them both to his office where Draco was already waiting. "Where the bloody hell have you been, Professor? I still need help with this potion mixture!" Draco said angrily as Snape entered the office.  
  
"I ran into these two deviants on my way to the supply room." Snape retorted. "They're both going to have detention."  
  
Hermione and Harry looked at his in confusion. "But Sir, only Professor McGonagall can give us detention." Hermione said as innocently as possible.  
  
"I'm afraid your Professor was called away this afternoon, Ms. Granger. I will be in charge of your house until her return. Now I'm signing both of you up for detention... and Mr. Malfoy as well."  
  
Draco looked at his favorite teacher in shock. "What? What do I have detention for?"  
  
"I wasn't too fond of your tone when I came in my office just now." Snape wrote the three of them up for detention and handed them their slips. "Mr. Potter, you will serve your detention with me this afternoon. Ms. Granger, Mr. Malfoy, you two will be serving detention together with Hagrid." Draco opened his mouth to argue but was cut off by Snape. "Now get out of here, all of you."  
  
As the three of them left the room, Draco couldn't help but wonder why the mudblood and the "Famous Harry Potter" had detention. "What did you two gits do to get detention?"  
  
"It's none of your business, Malfoy." Hermione sneered. "I'll see you in detention." She grabbed Harry and pulled him in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. "Let's go, Harry."  
  
"Sorry you got stuck serving detention with Draco." Harry said quietly. "Maybe this will make you feel better." He leaned in for a kiss, but Hermione held her hand against his mouth and pushed him away.  
  
"No more kissing for you, Harry Potter. If you hadn't of stuck your tongue down my throat, then I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!"  
  
"What?" He asked. "You can't get detention for kissing! The reason we have it is because we were practicing Quidditch alone!"  
  
"Well then it's still your fault isn't it? You insisted on teaching me even though Madam Hooch wasn't present."  
  
"Well I thought it would be safe. How was I to know that you'd get angry at the broom and make it you in the face?"  
  
"It should have hit you in the face."  
  
"At least I'm smart enough to know not to yell at a broom." Harry snapped.  
  
"Well if you're so smart, then how come it took you over 10 years to figure out that you're a wizard?"  
  
"Because my dead parents weren't here to tell me. But at least MY parents weren't mudbloods like yours." Harry had gone too far and he knew it. Before he could apologize, Hermione was gone.  
  
Hermione started marching angrily towards the library. How could Harry say something so cruel? She wanted to get back at him somehow. She had never felt so much anger and frustration before. She wanted to make Harry hurt as much as he had hurt her. She stopped in the hallway, trying to think of a plan for a simple revenge when Draco came walking around the corner. "What are you doing, you stupid little mudblood?" He asked as he came across Hermione. She was going to throw a comeback at him but a better thought struck her mind. Harry hated Draco... and he would probably hate the idea of her with Draco even more.  
  
"I was just looking for you, Malfoy."  
  
"Why were you looking for me? Want to get your hands on me already, Granger?"  
  
She gave him a devilish smirk. "Not yet. I'll take care of that in detention." She turned around and left him standing dumbfounded in the hallway.  
  
As Harry waited for Snape in his office, he began reflecting on the last few days. "What's happening to me?" He asked himself. He had never been this interested in girls before, he had never been this rebellious before. He began to miss just being an 11 year old boy and having fun with Ron in the common room. Now he was a teenager and things were changing; His voice, his looks, his personality even.  
  
Snape interrupted Harry's thoughts as he came through the door. "Well I was going to have you go to the Forbidden Forest for detention, but Hagrid's going to be there and you would only spend your time talking to him." At this, Harry wondered what Snape would possibly have him do instead. "You'll just be cleaning the halls." Snape handed him a bucket and a mop. "Get to work."  
  
Hermione and Draco approached Hagrid's door and waited for him to come out. "Here I come!" He shouted from inside and a moment later he opened the door. "I'm going to make this easy on you. Instead of making you serve detention in the forest, I'm going to go into it myself. I've got someone I want to talk to there and I want it to remain secret." As he said this, Hermione and Draco looked at him suspiciously. "I shouldn't have said that. Anyways, I'm leaving both of you here. All you have to do is keep yourselves busy for an hour or so until I get back. Now I'm locking you in, so you can't go anywhere." Before Malfoy could argue, Hagrid shut the door and left.  
  
"What a git." Draco said to himself and took a seat on Hagrid's bench. "I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when the fat man returns." He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. Hermione saw this as her chance to make her move. She took a seat on the bench next to Malfoy and waited for him to open his eyes and look at her. The problem was... he didn't. With a sigh, Hermione placed her hand on his. This snapped Draco back into reality and his head popped up with a start. "What do you think you're doing, mudblood?"  
  
"You've grown up so much over this past summer, Draco. You didn't really expect me to stay away from you when you come back to school looking this good?"  
  
Draco shook her hand off of his and quickly jumped off the bench. "Get away from me, Granger." He moved to a spot on the floor and lay down on his back. "You stay over there!" He yelled and closed his eyes once again. But it was no use. She got off the bench and kneeled down by him on the floor.  
  
"You've got a spider in your hair, Malfoy." He opened his eyes again and looked at her suspiciously.  
  
"Well get it off me already." She reached her hand over to his head and gently flicked away the invisible insect. "Is it gone yet? Hurry up."  
  
She let her hand sink into his hair and she slowly began stroking it. "It's gone." She whispered through a smile and ran her hand through his silky blonde hair.  
  
"Granger, I am NOT interested." He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her hand away. "Don't touch me again." But as he said this, his grasp on her wrist had not been released. He pulled her towards him until her head was inches away from his own. "I may not study as much as you do but I'm smart enough to know you're only goal here is to hurt Harry Potter." He pushed her away and sat up.  
  
Hermione scooted in close to him. "You know, nothing would upset Harry more than the thought of you with me. This would make him mad, Malfoy. Very mad. And I know how much you would love that."  
  
Draco let her words sink into his head as a sinister smile spread across his face. "You're right, Granger." He moved in as close to her as he could get and he let his lips linger near hers. "But it would also make you very happy." He kissed her on the cheek and stood up. "And we don't want that now do we?"  
  
Before she could argue, Hagrid came back in. "Glad to see you haven't knocked each other out."  
  
Draco started climbing the steps up to the common room. He knew by the time he got there, that the others would be asleep and he could have the room to himself. He couldn't wait to get to it and have some peace. He got through the door and turned on the light. What he saw laying on the couch made him jump in shock. "Granger! What are you doing in my common room? How did you get the password?"  
  
She smiled and sat up. "It was simple really. I just followed Goyle."  
  
"That git."  
  
"Well Draco. Why don't you come lay down?"  
  
"I'm not laying anywhere until you get out of this room, mudblood."  
  
"Well I'm not getting off of this couch and you look quite tired. Why don't you just come lay down? Afraid?" That did it.  
  
"Afraid of a mudblood? Fat chance." He slipped off his robe and climbed onto the couch. "You just stay on your side, Granger. I'm going to sleep." He closed his eyes with a sigh and laid his head back. Hermione turned to look at him and began watching him. He looked so vulnerable and she had to take her chance. After taking a deep breath, she leaned in and placed a kiss on his neck. "Hermione!" He shouted angrily. "Can't you take "no" for an answer?" He pushed her away and began struggling with her. "Get away from me you filthy little mudblood!"  
  
"At least this 'mudblood' knows how to get revenge on stupid little Harry Potter. You haven't even been able to make him angry in over 5 years!"  
  
He grabbed her by both wrists and stood up. "You want your revenge, you idiot? Take it! Go on then! Do it!" She stopped struggling and looked him in the eyes. This was it. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought she would never actually kiss Draco Malfoy, but now he was right there and she had him where she wanted him. She had to.  
  
"Alright then."  
  
She leaned in and let her lips swallow his. He let go of her arms and wrapped his own around her, letting his hand reach up to her head to caress her curly hair. He knew he would regret this later but it felt so wrong, and there was nothing in the world Draco Malfoy loved more than doing things that were wrong. She moved her lips away from his and gently began kissing his neck. 


End file.
